Thinking of getting a truck to replace my 03 pt cruiser. I only get 14-17 mpg driving around town so a truck won't be much worse. And we have a car for longer trips. So I saw an older dodge truck at a small lot here in town. It ain't perfect, but neither is my car.

But I don't have any experience with Dodge trucks so I don't know what to look for. There is some surface rust on the lower door skins. Cab corners and rockers look ok. One big dent in the bed on the passenger side. So the body needs a bit of work, but it doesn't look half bad from 20 feet. Good enough for a daily driver.

I drive about 3 miles to work, more or less. I don't have a truck, but you would be surprised at what I can get in that pt cruiser. The odometer reads about 93k miles, and my pt cruiser has about 130k or so. Plus the truck is a 4*4 which would be a plus in the winter time.

So what goes wrong with this era dodge truck? It has a 318 motor. What do I need to check or look at closely aside from the fluids and wires? Where do they leak and what goes wrong with this motor? What about electrical issues? What do I need to check in the drive train?

Not sure if this should have gone here or general rodding, but this ain't really a hot rod so I thought maybe here was best.